2016 IEEE First International Conference on Control, Measurement and Instrumentation (CMI)
Mathematical Modeling and Fuzzy Logic Control
of a Brushless DC Motor Employed in Automobile
and Industrial Applications
Bapayya Naidu Kommula
Student Member, IEEE
Research Scholar, Department of EEE, UCEK,
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Kakinada,
Kakinada-533003, A.P., India.
E-mail: kbapayanaaiidu@gmail.com
AbstractBrushless DC motors (BLDCM) are most popular
because of their higher efficiency, less maintenance and precise
control characteristics. However, this motor has nonlinear nature
and can be affected easily by the parameter change and
disruption. For any automobile and industrial applications, it is
essential to govern the speed accurately. Because of their fixed
gain values, high peak overshoot and high settling time the
conventional PI controllers are inadequate to control this motor
accurately. In this paper, to resolve the complications coupled
with the typical PI, Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) is intended to
eradicate the overshoot and to produce fast speed response of
motor. The mathematical modeling of BLDCM along with the
controller has been deduced for a 10 kW BLDC motor. The
simulations are done in Matlab/Simulink environment for
validating characteristics of FLC.
Keywords- Brushless DC motor (BLDCM), Fuzzy Logic Speed
Controller (FLC), Hysteresis Current Controller (HCC), PI Speed
Controller.
I. INTRODUCTION
The BLDC motor (BLDCM) is more prominent in
different industries because of their higher power density, high
efficiency, less maintenance, high ruggedness and a far range
of speed control [1]-[2]. Due to these benefits, they are well
suitable for many applications such as automobiles, medical
equipment, robotics and aerospace applications.
For detailed examination of BLDC motor, a numerous
simulation models are recommended [3]. For the exploration
of performance and system design, mathematical model for the
BLDCM drive is essential. The functioning of the BLDCM
drive is explored with help of mathematical models. Structural
characteristics and working procedures of BLDCM drive can
be realized while evolving mathematical model.
In speed loop feedback system, the most familiar
controller utilized in industrial applications is PI controller
because of its linear plant governing abilities, simple design
and low cost. However, the typical PI controller has slow
response and large overshoot. Because of the limits of
armature current, change in load and inertia of the drive,
BLDCM drive acts as nonlinear system. For a given reference
speed, it has been craved that step response for a system is
quick settling time and does not have any overshoot. For the
Venkata Reddy Kota
Member, IEEE
Assistant Professor, Department of EEE, UCEK,
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Kakinada,
Kakinada-533003, A.P., India.
E-mail: kvr.jntu@gmail.com
attainment of optimal step response, the typical PI controller is
unable to tune for various inertias, loads and reference speeds.
Hence, an intelligent controller like FLC is entailed for
enhancing good system response [5]. Normally, FLC includes
human brilliance in the application of system governing,
thereby extracting improved dynamic response from the
system. It is a powerful tool for governing the non linear
systems.
In this work, mathematical model for a three phase
BLDCM drive with PI and FLC has been designed based on
Matlab/Simulink environment. The performance has been
noticed using PI and FLC. Performance of PI controller has
been accompanying with intended FLC and result shows the
superiority of the FLC for BLDCM.
II. MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF BLDC MOTOR
Modeling of BLDCM often evolves in a manner
resembling to a three phase synchronous machine. The
BLDCM is equipped by three phase voltage supply. The only
requirement is that it should not be beyond the maximal
voltage value of the BLDCM. Fig. 1 depicts model of BLDC
motor drive. The voltage equation matrix for the BLDC motor
are often represented as
va R 0 0 ia Laa L L i e
ab ac a a
d (1)
vb =0 R 0 ib+dt Lba L L i +e
bb bc b b
vc 0 0 R ic
L
ca L L i e
cb cc c c
where L denotes self-inductance and R denotes stator
resistance, va, vb, vc denotes phase voltages, ia, ib, ic are motor
currents and ea, eb, ec are trapezoidal back EMF (BEMF) of
corresponding phases.
As it has been assumed that saturation and iron losses of
the motor are unusually small, the stator resistances are
identical and also the self-inductance of all phases is the same.
The mutual inductance among the phases is identical to each
other; and they are signified as
 2016 IEEE First International Conference on Control, Measurement and Instrumentation (CMI)

L aa
= L bb = L cc = L s
and f bs ( ) =

f as +
2

(8)
3
(2)
2
L =L =L =L =L =L =M
ab ba bc cb ac ca m
and f cs ( ) =

f as


3
(9)

The functions f as ( ), f bs ( ), f cs ( ) have the identical

shape as eas , ebs and ecs with a maximum magnitude of 1.
The rotor angle ( ) in electrical degrees is related to the
rotor angle in mechanical degrees ( m ) and number of pole
pairs (P) as follows

= m (10)
2
The electromagnetic torque Te can be stated as the following
equation
ea ia + eb ib + ec ic
Te = (11)
Fig. 1. Model of BLDC motor drive

The equation of a motor with inertia J, friction coefficient B
Hence, the equation (1) can be rewritten as
and load torque Tl is expressed as
va 1 0 0 ia Ls Mm Mm ia ea d
d (3) Te Tl = J + B (12)
vb = R0 1 0 ib + Mm Ls Mm dt ib + eb dt
v 0 0 1 i Mm Mm Ls i e
c c c c
III. DESIGN OF SPEED CONTROLLER
In a 3-phase BLDCM, the BEMF waveform depends on
This section evaluates the controller design applied to a
rotor position. BEMF of each phase has phase difference
BLDC motor with a trapezoidal BEMF for yielding an
with others, thus the equation of every BEMF phase will be as
acceptable speed control performance. The fundamental
represented as follows
diagram of BLDCM for controlling speed is depicted in Fig. 2.
ea = Kb f as ( ) (4)
eb = K b f bs ( ) (5)
e c = K b f cs ( ) (6)

where Kb is Back EMF constant [V/rad/Sec], is rotor

angle [in electrical degrees], is the speed of rotor [rad/Sec],
and f as , f bs , f cs are trapezoidal functions.
The trapezoidal function f as ( ) can be represented as


where 0 <
6 (7)
6
5
1 where <
6 6
5
( )
6 5 7
f as ( ) = 1 where <
6 6
6
7 11 Fig. 2. Fundamental diagram for BLDCM speed regulation
1 where <
6 6
The BLDC motor works on speed and current control
11

6 11
< 2
mode. In the prior mode, the motor speed is differentiated
1 + where

( )
6
6 with reference speed, based on this the amount of current in
each phase is altered. In the later mode, the actual current in
each phase has been compared with reference current and an
The functions f bs ( ) and f cs ( ) can be expressed as
error here is being processed through HCC. The HCC brings
out required pulses for the suitable switching of inverter [6].
 2016 IEEE First International Conference on Control, Measurement and Instrumentation (CMI)

A. PI speed controller specified as Negative Big (NB), Negative Medium (NM),

This kind of controller is used in the majority of industrial Negative Small (NS), Zero (Z), Positive Small (PS), Positive
applications due to its lucid control structure. Here, the PI Medium (PM) and Positive Big (PB).
controllers output is expressed by the subsequent equation Table I. Rules of FLC
t
Vc (t ) = K pr E r (t ) + K in E r (t ) dt (13)
0

where Vc (t ) the PI speed controllers output, K pr is

proportional gain, K in is integral gain and Er (t ) is error
signal. The definite speed of the BLDC motor correlates with
the required speed. The typical PI controller is depicted in Fig.
3.

In case of controlling BLDCM, speed error (E) and change

in speed error (CE) have been chosen as inputs to FLC. The
output of the FLC is function of E and CE. For getting the
most effective control execution, five triangular and two
trapezoidal membership functions have been chosen. The
opposite term of fuzzification can be defuzzification. Rules for
Fig. 3. PI controller FLC generate needed output in a linguistic variable. It is
modified to crisp output. Making utilizing of centroid
B. Fuzzy Logic Controller defuzzification scheme, crisp output has been attained. Fig. 5
illustrates the MFs of input and output variable for effective
Fig. 4 depicts basic block diagram of a FLC. FLC does not
control of a BLDCM.
need precise mathematical model for a system. It has been
designed based on the experience of people. The primary step
inside the FLC is fuzzification. It is a method that converts 1
NB NM
NS Z
PS PM
PB
Degree of membership

crisp inputs to linguistic variables. These linguistic variables 0.8

are quantified by using membership functions. The most 0.6

common kinds of membership functions are triangular and 0.4

trapezoidal shapes. In general, these are selected with the user 0.2

expertise. 0

-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Speed error
(a)

1 NB NM NS Z PS PM PB
Degree of membership

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Change in speed error
(b)

Fig. 4. Basic structure of FLC 1 NB NM NS Z PS PM PB

Degree of membership

0.8

Later, by using rule base an inference is designed. Rule 0.6

base has been built to manage output variable. It could be an 0.4

elementary if-then rule consisting of an assumption and 0.2

conclusion. After, determining the consequences of every rule, 0

these are to be joined to get the final result. This method is -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

named as inference [7]. A rule base applied for intended FLC output U
(c)
is portrayed in Table I. Fuzzy membership functions (MFs) are Fig. 5. Membership functions of FLC
 2016 IEEE First International Conference on Control, Measurement and Instrumentation (CMI)

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
To validate the control characteristics of BLDC motor
drive, simulations are done in Matlab/Simulink environment.
The base of this simulation is to assess the effectiveness of the
BLDCM drive with the intended FLC and comparing its
controller has relatively higher settling time. FLC offers
smooth response, zero peak overshoot and has a quicker
response than the PI. On the other hand, FLC settles with a
small steady state speed error throughout load variation.
BLDC
motor

performance with PI controller. Fig. 6 signifies the simulation w

3000 Va
model for controlling of BLDCM in Matlab/Simulink Speed
Ref.
environment. The specifications of BLDCM are stated in table speed
Controller Hysteresis
Current
Power theta

II. Controller
Converter Vb
Scope
Iabc

Table II. Specifications of BLDC motor drive Vc

eabc

Power 10 kW T_load
Te
Tref
Voltage 120 V
Resistance per phase 18 m
Conduction
Inductance per phase 252H Angle
Generation
No. of poles 4
Rated speed 3000 rpm

Fig. 6. Matlab/Simulink model for controlling of BLDC motor

Fig. 7 depicts operation of BLDCM with PI controller and
HCC with a hysteresis band of 0.05A. Here Kpr, Kin are set to a
values of 0.9 and 4.8 respectively by fine tuning the values
obtained using Ziegler-Nichols method. The motor desired 3000
speed is set at 3000 rpm. An abrupt load of 10 Nm is put on
Speed (rpm)

this motor at the instant of 0.2 seconds. It can be observed 2000

from the speed response, that PI speed controller has a
substantial quantity of undershoot but manages to track the 1000
desired speed at the cost of higher settling time as illustrated in
Fig. 7(a). Fig. 7(b) shows the armature current of phase A. The 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
BEMF waveform of phase A is presented in Fig. 7(c). Fig. (a)
7(d) depicts the torque response of the motor and from Fig. 200
7(d) it can be perceived that torque caused by the BLDCM
Ia (A)

100
with PI carries a good amount of ripples. 0
Fig. 8 depicts the response of the BLDC motor with FLC
-100
and HCC with a hysteresis band of 0.05A. From the speed
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
response, it can be perceived that FLC gives quick speed (b)
response compared to PI controller and it does not produce 20
any overshoots and undershoots as shown in Fig. 8(a). Fig.
Eba (V)

8(b) shows the armature current of phase A and BEMF 0

waveform of phase A is shown in Fig.8(c).It is apparent that
the torque produced by the motor with FLC contains a smaller -20
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
amount ripples as shown in Fig.8 (d). (c)
Fig. 9 illustrates a comparison of output speed responses of 30
two controllers with the reference speed of 3000 rpm. An 20
Te (Nm)

abrupt load of 10 Nm is applied at the time of 0.05 seconds. 10

From this comparison chart, it is determined that initially PI 0
has peak overshoot and undershoot, while FLC settle down -10
with zero peak overshoot. Once an abrupt load is applied, PI 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
(d)
controller results a dip of 80 rpm in speed response. But, the Time (Sec)
FLC works effectively and results a very small speed variation
of 20 rpm during sudden load changes.
Fig. 7. Performance of BLDC motor with PI controller at a Tl of 10 Nm
Table III illustrates a comparison between two speed
controllers. It is cleared from table III that the PI gives high applied at 0.2 Sec. (a) Speed (b) Phase A current Ia (c) Back Emf, Eba
peak overshoot on load torque conditions. Also, the PI (d) Torque Te
 2016 IEEE First International Conference on Control, Measurement and Instrumentation (CMI)

Table III. Comparison of PI controller and FLC

3000
At Tl = 10 Nm, 3000 rpm
Speed (rpm)

2000 Controller PI Fuzzy

Peak overshoot (%) 5.3 0
1000 Rise time (sec) 0.0189 0.0179
Settling time (sec) 0.0312 0.0125
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 Steady state error (rpm) 0 10
(a)
200 V. CONCLUSION
100
Ia (A)

0 This paper proposes a Fuzzy Logic based speed controller

-100 for a BLDC motor. A detailed mathematical modeling of a 10
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
kW BLDC motor is also discussed. The performance of
(b) intended FLC has been compared with the typical PI. The
20 proposed scheme is developed and simulated in
Matlab/Simulink. From the results, it can be observed that the
Eb (V)

0 PI controller has slow response and maintains peak overshoot.

The FLC eliminates this peak overshoot and also gives better
-20
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
transient performance. But, it maintains a small steady state
(c) error. From the results, it can be concluded that FLC is best
30 suited for BLDC motor where quick response of the motor is
20 required.
Te (Nm)

10
0 REFERENCES
-10
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500

0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4
Time (Sec)

Fig. 9. Comparison of speed response of PI, FLC at 3000 rpm for Tl of 10 Nm